I have discovered inadvertently last year, through a Hong Kong-based lawyer, that Mrs. Myrna Reblando is being processed in Hong Kong for asylum to another country. The information given to me was confidential and knowing that asylum is also a confidential legal process, I have not said anything about it.

Mrs. Reblando did not inform me that she was seeking the assistance of Hong Kong directly. We are aware, however, that she has consistently worried about her and her family’s protection, even as she acknowledged to me that our own government has provided her security escorts in her home, up to the day she left the country.

We do not take it against her that she had decided to take this course of action. We know that she, like her fellow victims, has suffered greatly and has been under tremendous physical and emotional pressure. Despite the best efforts of the prosecution, the trial is protracted and a successful conclusion is not immediately forthcoming. No one can blame the victims for feeling threatened over news that Zaldy Ampatuan plans to run for office again. Our own clients report that emissaries continue to approach them with offers of financial settlement in favor of concessions for the suspects. At the end of each day, it is the fight for justice against the Ampatuans that sustains many of our clients. #